‘My Experiences in the Big Chair’: Service User Experiences of Common Eye Diseases

 

School of Health Sciences Community Engagement Seminar

‘My Experiences in the Big Chair’:  Service User Experiences of Common Eye Diseases

The School of Health Sciences at City University London would like to invite you to attend our next Community Engagement Seminar.

 

Date:  Wednesday 24 June 2015

Time:  2pm-2.30pm

Location:  Room A226, College Building, City University London

 

The seminar will be led by Dr Byki Huntjens, Optometrists and Lecturer in the Division of Optometry and Visual Sciences.  She is involved in teaching multiple clinical modules and co-facilitates the contact lens teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

 

Dr Byki Huntjens has introduced a new series of tutorials designed for UG and PG optometry programme, whereby service users with common eye diseases discuss their everyday experience of the disease, their experiences of the national screening services, and any treatment received.

 

Online eye examination tutorials including short interviews with the service users were prepared, and on separate occasions the service users supported dialogues with small groups of students regarding their everyday experiences coping with the disease.

 

‘By introducting the service user perspective to undergraduate optometry students, I envisage that the improved understanding of the patient perspective will translate into enhanced communication skills and optometric management when students progress to the professional eye clinics in their final year of study.’

 

During the lecture, Dr Byki Huntjens will address her experiences in recruitment of service users, filming and editing, and organizing the ‘Meet the Experts’ events for the students.  Additionally, she will present the feedback results, and discuss future work to this series.

 

For more information please visit www.city.ac.uk/health

 

 

 

City University London wins national public engagement award

Dear All

As we welcome everyone back to the start of a new academic year, we wanted to share this good news that came in over the summer.

SUGAR (Service User and Carer Group Advising on Research)

Sugar

 

 

 

 

 

Researchers from the School of Health Sciences at City University London have won the Health and Wellbeing award in the national Engage Competition for their public engagement work.

Recognised for successfully developing community engagement and collaborative working in mental health nursing research, SUGAR (Service User and Carer Group Advising on Research) – which is facilitated by Professor Alan Simpson from the School of Health Sciences – was the winning project from over 230 entries. The competition is run by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).

The judges praised the project and the “thoughtful, sophisticated and deeply embedded engagement throughout the research process. The partners took ownership and the university has truly become their resource. Fabulous value and transferable to other disciplines.”

More can be read about this great news on the following links:

ELFT story

Winners:

http://www.eastlondon.nhs.uk/News-Events/News/SUGAR-Wins-National-Public-Engagement-Award.aspx

Shortlisted:

http://www.eastlondon.nhs.uk/News-Events/News/SUGAR-shortlisted-for-national-public-engagement-award.aspx

 NCPPE Story

http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/blog/engage-competition-2014-awards-ceremony

http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/news/nccpe-engage-competition-2014-award-winners-announced

https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/work-with-us/competition/competition-finalists

An Experience of Breast Cancer

Anise Bullimore recently underwent treatment for breast cancer. Over the past year Anise has been sharing her experiences online but also running sessions with our nursing and radiotherapy students (please see video presentations below).

Anise said of her experiences of working with the School of Health Sciences:

‘It’s been a really positive experience. I’ve been able to make sense of the treatment and cancer and aftermath by creating presentations which has been really valuable. I’ve met some wonderful students and SHS staff and feel that I’ve been able to make a difference to how some people view cancer or understand patients. I’ve also had the chance to be involved a little in your courses and learning spaces which has helped me to understand teaching at City more. On top of that, during an extraordinarily stressful working year I’ve been able to do something that I’ve felt I was good at which helped me to feel confident, develop my skills and do something good at work.’

On behalf of the School of Health ‘User and Carer Engagement’ community we would like to thank Anise for sharing her experiences with our staff and students and presenting them with the invaluable insight of a patient’s journey down the road of cancer treatment. The impact Anise’s sessions have had can clearly be seen through the student responses to her rehabilitation talk:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myrtock/sets/72157636902394906/

During the course of Anise’s treatment she gathered a number of artifacts – writing, videos and pictures. Anise has kindly agreed we can share this material with you as they may be of use to your students in the future.

Googledrive artifacts available via this link https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxhVBUjKRTTKWC03VFZFUnZhZkk&usp=drive_web : •

  • My Year on the Sofa – photobook of Anise’s treatment including photos, art therapy images and scans (powerpoint)
  • Wordle of qualities that make a good cancer nurse by nursing students (jpg)
  • Nursing session talk (powerpoint)
  • Rehabilitation session talk (powerpoint)
  • Art therapy experience writing (Word)
  • Radiotherapy experience writing (Word)
  • After cancer experience writing •(Word)
  • Family and friends experience writing (Word)
  • Harvey Survivorship article – excellent article about psychological experience after cancer treatment • Impact on friends and family writing (Word)

Videos available online:

  • My Body of Work, TedX talk (13 mins):

  • An Experience of Breast Cancer Treatment, nursing session talk video (52 mins):

 

New Case Studies and Practical Tips for User and Carer Engagement

We have received two new case studies this week one from Language and Communications on Aphasia and one from Mental Health.

Language and Communication Sciences: Example of “Stories with aphasia”

Read about the project  “Stories with aphasia” set up by Drs Madeline Cruice and Lucy Dipper for individuals with aphasia to experience telling their story successfully.  The project is designed to connect Londoners who have aphasia with volunteers who act as story-buddies, assisting each person to produce a digital multimedia story.

Mental Health: Incorporation of service user experience into a module on experiencing acute care in mental health

This case study includes some very positive feedback from students demonstrating the influence of service user experience in the classroom:

‘I personally loved it. I was fascinated by her story and what she has been through and could have listened to her for hours. It was interesting to hear from her perspective how she felt about the stigma and also about how the medication worked for her. I’d love to know even more about her experience and I think she is very brave!’

Practical Tips for User and Carer Engagement

If you need support with regards to user and carer activities remember to look at the resources listed under Guidelines, including helpful tips such as paying service users and carers and practical considerations when involving users and carers.

If you wish to speak to someone about user and carer activity please do contact your division’s Community Engagement representative listed on the key contacts page.